House Republicans Threaten to Hold ActBlue in Contempt
The House Republicans investigating ActBlue are threatening to hold the Democratic fundraising platform in contempt of Congress for what they say is the organization’s “inadequate” compliance with lawmakers’ subpoenas.
In a letter to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones on Monday, three GOP House committee chairs accused the platform of “making expansive assertions of attorney-client privilege in an attempt to improperly shield documents” requested by congressional investigators.
“These actions have impeded the Committees’ ability to develop legislation to protect our elections against fraudulent political contributions and foreign interference,” the letter from House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), House Administration Committee Chair Brian Steil (R-Wis.) and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) reads.
The letter closes with a warning: “The Committees remain prepared to enforce our subpoenas through all available mechanisms.”
The contempt threat marks the latest escalation in congressional Republicans’ probe into whether ActBlue illegally processed political donations from foreign nationals. That investigation has widened in scope in recent months after The New York Times reported that attorneys for the Democratic fundraising platform had warned Wallace-Jones that she may have misled members of Congress in her previous answers to questions.
Wallace-Jones and ActBlue have denied any wrongdoing and have repeatedly cast the GOP-led investigations – including an ongoing Justice Department probe – as a politically motivated attempt to hobble a key pillar of Democrats’ grassroots fundraising operations.
In a statement, ActBlue said that it “has and will continue to fulfill its legal obligations,” noting that it has turned over troves of relevant materials to the committees for months.
“Unfortunately, the Committees are now engaged in an abuse of their oversight authority by demanding disclosure of certain confidential attorney client privileged documents,” ActBlue said. “Despite the highly partisan nature of these investigations, we will continue to cooperate with the Committees while exercising our well-established rights to protect sensitive privileged information.”
Wallace-Jones appeared before the House Administration Committee earlier this month for a public hearing focused on whether she misled congressional investigators. During that hearing, the ActBlue CEO invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in response to every question from Republican lawmakers.
In a video posted online, Wallace-Jones defended her decision to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights, arguing that she was left with no other choice, given what she said was the politically charged nature of the investigations.
“Invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission – or even an insinuation – of guilt,” she said. “It is the only reasonable response to a highly partisan proceeding that is about harassing its largest political opponent’s fundraising platform, not genuine oversight.”
House Democrats, meanwhile, used that hearing to decry the investigation into ActBlue and raise concerns about potential fraud and deceptive fundraising practices at the GOP’s main online fundraising platform WinRed, raising the prospect that Democrats could launch their own probe into the platform if they recapture control of the House in November.
After the June 10 hearing, the House Administration Committee’s top Democrats sent a letter to WinRed CEO Ryan Lyk, demanding that he sit for a transcribed interview and that the organization turn over a trove of documents and communications regarding “actual or alleged misconduct by WinRed staff” and its fraud prevention policies.
